Lyons: Cheetah Club dispute much ado about nothing

An informative sign on north Sarasota's U.S. 301 says "Cheetah Gentlemen's Club" and "Nude girls" and "Lap Dances."

It also says "Open." But the last claim was contradicted Monday afternoon by an alarming paper sign taped to the Cheetah's front doors.

"Due to mechanical issues, we are temporarily closed," it said.

Whatever mechanical glitches the longtime strip club might be having, its legal problems are certainly a bigger issue. The owners have been openly ignoring the Sarasota County Commission's attempt to force dancers to cover nipples and other not-very-private parts and to stop doing lap dances.

And so, it made sense when an emailed tip said fear of legal problems had just led Cheetah managers and some dancers to walk out.

"I thought you would like to know that all of the managers from the Cheetah quit along with most of the dancers after ownership told them to operate as normal and continue to go nude," the email from a former manager claimed. "The managers were already upset at the owners" over some money matters, and "they drew the line at being told to operate illegally."

But fans of nude dancing need not mourn Cheetah's passing just yet, it seems.

When I reached co-owner Ken Tatarow by phone Monday afternoon, he said the strip club had only been closed for one night — air conditioning issues, he insisted — and would open again that very evening, as usual.

The dancers will be just as bare as usual, he assured me. Despite a recent loss in court, his legal battle with Sarasota County is just beginning, Tatarow assured me. He has hired a new law firm that specializes in land use law and related government "taking" of property and property rights.

And Tatarow insisted there was no big employee walkout issue.

"We got rid of a manager. He was bad news and we fired him," and he probably wants to trash the business now, Tatarow said.

He was saying so from the Virgin Islands, by the way. He said he lives for a good part of the year on his yacht, which he keeps in St. Thomas.

If such is the life of a strip club owner, I'm jealous. No wonder he finds it worth fighting a legal battle so that Cheetah can continue as a longtime local provider of sexually stimulating nude dancing services.

I'll let his lawyers worry about the legal issues, but I remain stumped as to why the county bothers to harass that business. Usually the pretense has been that such places are crime magnets. In fact, though, every cop I've ever talked to about it says they have very few problems at Cheetah.

It has been many years since I've been in the place, about as long as it has been since I went the Sarasota Opera, where I have spent equally little time. And yet both are places I would hate to see close.

They both seem like a part of Sarasota.

Some residents dislike nude dancing just as others much dislike opera. But since all are free to stay away from both, I just can't see how they think it is their business what goes on there.

Telling a nude dance club that performers must wear clothes is like insisting that opera singers stop singing so loudly in foreign languages. And how is anyone who doesn't attend going to know the difference anyway?

Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.